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Saturday, 11 February 2017

Isaac Asimov 1920-1992

Isaac Asimov is my personal favourite science fiction author. I grew up
reading his novels, especially what was originally the Foundation
trilogy, later added to. I also particularly loved the robot novels.

He was born Isaak Osimov in Petrovichi, Russia, in 1920. Petrovichi is very
proud of their native son, and have honored the place of his birth with a
memorial stone. His family emigrated to the United States when he was three
years old. He became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1928 at the age of eight.

As well as being a writer he was a professor of biochemistry at Boston
University. He was known for his works of science fiction and popular science,
but also wrote mysteries and fantasy, as well as much nonfiction, especially his
popular science books.

Asimov was a prolific writer, and wrote or edited more than 500 books. It
took nineteen years for him to publish his first 100 books, ten years to publish
the next 100, and only five years to bring the total up to 300. If you do the
maths, I don’t see how he could write so much so quickly. It takes me about a
year to produce a book!

He also wrote hundreds of short stories, including the social science fiction
"Nightfall",
which in 1964 was voted by the Science Fiction Writers of America the best short
science fiction story of all time.

He began reading science fiction pulp magazines at a young age. His father,
as a matter of principle, forbade reading the pulps, as he considered them to be
trash, but Asimov persuaded him that the science fiction magazines had "Science"
in the title, so they were educational.

Around the age of 11, he began to write his own stories, and by age 19, after
he discovered science fiction fandom, he was selling stories to the science
fiction magazines. John W Campbell, then editor of Astounding
Science Fiction, had a strong formative influence on Asimov and
eventually became a personal friend.

The Oxford English Dictionary credits his science fiction for
introducing the words 'positronic' (an entirely fictional technology), 'psychohistory'
(which is also used for a different study on historical motivations) and
'robotics' into the English language.

Isaac Asimov was recognized by the 111th Congress on March 9, 2010 in House Resolution
1055, "supporting the designation of National Robotics Week as an annual
event".

If you’re interested in a review of all of Azimov’s books in one place, go to
Jenkins’ Spoiler-Laden
Guide to Isaac Azimov.[adapted from Azimov Online and Wikipedia]Ann Marie Thomas is the author of three medieval history books, a
surprisingly cheerful poetry collection about her 2010 stroke, and the science
fiction series Flight of the Kestrel. Book one, Intruders, is out now.
Follow her at http://eepurl.com/bbOsyz